For this week’s theme, DINOSAURS, I went back in time to 31 December 1853 for the NYE Dinner in a Dinosaur. Sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins had been commissioned to create some giant dinosaurs for the new location of the Crystal Palace. To ring in 1854 in prehistoric style, Hawkins invited 20 geologists and news writers. It was a fancy affair: eight courses, a never-ending supply of wine and dinosaur songs, and a half-finished iguanodon mould. According to Routledge’s Guide to the Crystal Palace, the “‘roaring’ chorus” of singing geologists was so “fierce and enthusiastic, as almost to lead to the belief that a herd of iguanodons were bellowing.”

Since we’re lucky enough to still have access to the original “Bill of Fare,” I’ve recreated the sweets and desserts portion of the menu with two different bavarois: blueberry-lemon and chocolate-raspberry. Then I decorated them with some chocolate ferns. This was the first time I’ve ever messed around with moulds, gelatine, etc.

Bavarois: https://www.madaboutmacarons.com/blueberry-lemon-bavarois-roasted-coriander/

Excellent Iguanodon Dinner Party read: https://blog.geolsoc.org.uk/2021/04/15/the-first-dinosaurs-dinner/

Used th

RAVIOLO ALL’UOVO CON ASPARAGI E BURRO NOISETTE

From a Milk Street Cooking Class: One Giant Raviolo with Danilo Cortellini

From Falastin by Sami Tamimi

My plating skills and photographer leave a lot to be desired but we had fun this week!

Homemade turkey and sweet potato dino nuggets with mashed potatoes and pan gravy

Dino (scotch) eggs, kale chips, and t-rex toast

Battled with the dough a little bit. I’ve made homemade pasta before though so was able to pivot. Not sure if it was the purée or that I added a little bit of semolina flour but dough was dry and crumbly at first. Had to add some water and oil to get it right. Ended up amazing once I got the texture right!

I served it with pesto, some of the leftover beets, and of course a good bit of Parmesan.

First time making dough with vegetables for coloring and first time making the tortellini shape.

These are baked Turkey Scotch Eggs coated in panko to be exact! This ground fowl is incredibly moist which makes it difficult to work with.

What's it like? Imagine for a second that someone asked you to cover a medical glove that was filled with water(and tied off) entirely with raw meat. I would suggest ground pork, venison, or beef- but turkey is a crap shoot.

If you use pork skins in place of panko they would be keto, which my sibling did for their trial run. Hideous bastards that deserve a right side of mustard!

My first time making focaccia. I followed Alison Roman's recipe from Nothing Fancy and attempted to make a fern fossil pattern using green onion and rosemary

Used Dino kale this week for our favorite kale salad. It’s from “Six Seasons” and I love the simplicity of it. Just olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, pecorino and walnuts and it’s an easy side.

I added Goya multi-seasoning and the anatto reacted with the sauce more than I’d of liked. Still tasty and the living dinosaur meat was on sale, so I’ll chalk it up as a win.

This is probably the worst food photography ever so I apologize. I asked my husband what I should do for dinosaur week and he told me about this dinosaur egg omelette in Neopets? So I made my first omelette and it wasn’t pretty but my husband liked it!

https://www.jellyneo.net/?go=giantomelette

This was so much easier than I expected and SO GOOD. I wish I had tripled the recipe!